Chapter 201: The Creator's Backdoor
The optimal solution was simple.
Let Lex Luthor build his weapon.
Let him provide the resources, the laboratories, and the years of research.
Lynn would simply alter the source material before Luthor ever received it.
He closed his eyes.
SSS-Rank — Dimensional Domination.
Reality rewriting.
A thin crimson-and-dark-gold radiance emerged from his fingertips and flowed into the vibranium storage vial.
The light passed through the container without disturbing its physical structure.
Then it entered the biological sample.
Lynn's consciousness descended into the genetic material itself.
The All-Seeing Eye unfolded General Zod's Kryptonian genetic structure before him.
The double helix was no longer merely a strand of DNA.
It resembled an enormous three-dimensional information lattice.
Every coding sequence.
Every regulatory region.
Every mutation.
Every dormant biological pathway.
Everything was exposed.
The sample was extraordinarily valuable.
Zod had been engineered and bred within Krypton's military caste system, optimized for combat and command. His genetic template contained characteristics capable of supporting extraordinary physical performance under a yellow sun: cellular energy conversion, tissue regeneration, neural efficiency, and resistance to environmental extremes.
For Luthor's purposes...
It was almost perfect.
If someone were to use this material as the foundation for a new artificial organism...
The resulting creature could become extraordinarily dangerous.
Lynn's finger moved slightly.
Dark-golden light penetrated the innermost portions of the genetic lattice.
He did not alter Zod's appearance.
He did not reduce the DNA's viability.
He did not interfere with its ability to combine with other genetic material.
The future organism could still develop normally.
It could still possess immense strength.
It could still regenerate.
It could still become a weapon capable of fighting Superman.
Lynn merely added something else.
A backdoor.
Deep inside a regulatory sequence governing energy conversion, he implanted a causal condition that conventional genetic analysis could not detect.
Under ordinary circumstances...
The sequence would function normally.
There would be no visible mutation.
No abnormal protein.
No obvious genetic marker.
Nothing for Luthor's scientists to discover.
But should the resulting organism ever directly engage a target carrying Lynn's Immortal Divine Body signature...
Or the distinctive mystical imprint produced by Chaos Magic and Dimensional Domination...
The altered probability would immediately activate.
Its energy output toward such a target would collapse toward zero.
Not its entire power.
Only its ability to direct meaningful force against that specific class of target.
Muscles could contract.
The nervous system could issue commands.
The creature could attempt to strike.
But the underlying causal pathway required to transfer effective force to Lynn or Wanda would be suppressed.
An attack would begin...
And simply fail to become an effective attack.
A fist could swing.
A claw could tear through steel.
A roar could shake a battlefield.
Yet against the designated targets...
The result would be equivalent to striking empty space.
The creature would remain enormously dangerous to everyone else.
Superman.
Batman.
Thor.
The Avengers.
The Justice League.
Ordinary armies.
It could fight all of them.
Only Lynn and Wanda had been excluded from the equation.
The entire modification required less than ten seconds.
Lynn withdrew his power.
The dark-violet biological suspension remained perfectly unchanged to the naked eye.
No discoloration.
No sediment.
No detectable degradation.
Even the finest genetic sequencing technology available to Luthor would reveal nothing unusual unless it already knew precisely what to search for.
Lynn returned the vial to its temperature-controlled rack.
"If you want to build something to fight Superman," he murmured, "that's your business."
He turned toward the laboratory exit.
"But if what you build eventually comes looking for me..."
He adjusted his glasses.
"That would be an unnecessary loss."
That night...
New York.
An abandoned warehouse district several blocks from the underground base.
Lynn stood between rows of rusted shipping containers, wearing the dark gray coat he sometimes used when shopping.
The sea breeze coming from Long Island carried salt through the cold night air.
A silent black drone descended from the darkness.
No insignia.
No visible registration.
Its propulsion system produced almost no sound.
The machine stopped roughly five meters in front of Lynn.
A concealed cargo compartment opened beneath it.
At the same time...
A holographic projector illuminated the concrete.
Lex Luthor appeared.
His bald head and sharp features were rendered in pale blue light.
"Where is it?"
Lynn raised the vibranium vial.
"My payment has arrived?"
Luthor's expression barely changed.
"It has."
Lynn checked his phone.
An encrypted financial notification appeared.
Wire transfer confirmed.
Amount: $50,000,000,000.
Exactly as agreed.
Fifty billion dollars.
Only then did Lynn toss the vial.
The drone caught it inside its shock-absorption cradle.
The compartment sealed.
Luthor was already preparing to terminate the connection.
"Wait."
Lynn's voice stopped him.
Luthor looked back.
"Transporting something this sensitive across the country..."
Lynn's expression remained casual.
"Are you certain you aren't worried about Superman detecting it?"
"Or Batman intercepting the transport?"
Luthor's mouth curved slightly.
"Neither."
The holographic image flickered.
Then something unusual happened.
Luthor's face changed.
Not through illusion.
Not through a conventional holographic filter.
A fine biomimetic layer flowed across his features.
His facial geometry subtly reconfigured.
Within a second...
Lex Luthor's familiar face had disappeared.
In its place was the completely unremarkable face of a middle-aged blond man.
No distinctive features.
No recognizable biometric signature.
Lynn raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting."
The projection terminated.
The drone rose vertically.
Two seconds later...
It vanished into the New York night.
Lynn remained where he was.
The wind tugged gently at his coat.
He looked down at the phone.
The fifty-billion-dollar transfer remained confirmed.
He knew what Luthor intended to build.
In the original history of the DC Universe, Doomsday was not simply a Kryptonian clone. His origins were far stranger and more horrifying: he was an ancient engineered creature associated with the scientists of prehistoric Krypton, repeatedly subjected to death and resurrection so that each generation became stronger and more resistant to whatever had killed the previous one.
Luthor's version would be different.
But the principle was familiar.
Take the biology of Krypton.
Push it beyond its natural limits.
Create something whose purpose was not merely to defeat Superman...
But to surpass him.
Lynn considered telling Bruce.
He decided against it.
Bruce Wayne would immediately investigate.
If Batman discovered that LexCorp had acquired Zod's genetic material and was secretly constructing a biological weapon, he would attempt to stop the project before it could mature.
That would create complications.
More importantly...
It would connect Lynn's transaction with Luthor's operation.
Fifty billion dollars was a great deal of money.
Turning the transaction into evidence that he had knowingly aided a hostile force would be extremely inefficient.
Lynn also had no reason to fear the eventual creature.
He had already installed the safeguard.
Even if Luthor's experiment succeeded beyond expectations...
It could not harm him.
And if the creature became a genuine threat to everyone else?
That was not necessarily his problem.
Superman and Batman could deal with it.
The Avengers could intervene.
The Justice League could join them.
And should the resulting battle produce enough casualties...
The Miracle Clinic would have no shortage of customers.
Lynn calmly put the phone away.
"Forget it."
He stepped into the golden portal that had opened behind him.
"There's already a backdoor."
Before entering...
He glanced once more toward the stars above Manhattan.
"This world really does attract disasters."
He stepped through.
"Fortunately, I'm incredible."
...
One week after the Sokovia attacks.
The global news cycle showed no signs of slowing.
Every major network continued broadcasting the same images.
The ruins of Sokovia.
Displaced civilians.
Refugee camps.
International condemnation.
United Nations debates.
And, repeatedly...
That blurred recording of the masked figure emerging from a golden portal and tearing the Mind Stone from Ultron's body.
Lynn sat behind the reception desk at Miracle Clinic.
The television was playing quietly in the background.
On the screen, a CNN host interviewed a political science professor.
"...We must confront a problem—these superheroes, or rather, superhuman individuals, act completely outside the bounds of international law."
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